'Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story' doesn't hit the right notes

Judd Apatow - producer, writer, or director of most of the funniest comedies in Hollywood for the last few years - has finally created a dud as producer and co-writer of “Walk Hard.” In his defense, it wasn’t entirely his fault. The comic rhythm was off in the film, with a tone that never completely feels right. The actors and the director have to shoulder as much of the blame as the screenplay. Parody films as a sub-genre have been running out of gas for years, so why should Apatow’s rock legend story be immune? The film is not bereft of chuckles, however, and the music itself is the most catchy and fun piece of the experience.

John C. Reilly (“Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby”) plays Dewey Cox, a young man with a dream of being a musician. He loses his brother in a tragic event – more shocking, it turns out, than funny – for which he never completely forgives himself. He strikes out on his own at a young age, starting out as a teeny-bopper in the 1950s playing to local crowds and eventually signing a record deal after being discovered in a rhythm and blues nightclub. Since the story is heavily influenced by Johnny Cash, the Beatles and Ray Charles, Cox goes through his pop period, a party period, a dark period, and a kitschy re-birth on television. During his ups and downs, he finds a woman singer while on the road, Darlene (Jenna Fischer), who never completely gives up on him.

Reilly - who was known more as a dramatic film actor before finding comedy - inhabits the role of the struggling musician, doing the best he can with the material. His fall from grace is perhaps too convincing, pulling the movie out of comedic territory and into what it’s supposed to be satirizing. The bright spot of the film is Fischer, who has sharpened her dry wit on television’s “The Office” and never betrays the fact she knows it’s all a joke. Besides the two leads, no one else in the cast makes much of an impression. “Walk Hard” just can’t strike the right chord consistently, with haphazard snicker-inducing moments throughout. The humor in parody films has become too obvious, no longer insightful or clever. While better than some of the recent satirical dreck like “Epic Movie” and “The Comebacks,” “Walk Hard” is, in the end, an ineffective attempt.

Rated R for sexual content, graphic nudity, drug use and language.